Insect-proof attachment for furniture and other articles.



J. KRUSE. INSECT PROOF ATTACHMENT FOR FURNiTURE AND OTHER ARTICLES.

Tl I AUG H 19\ v APPHCA .1 7- 1 5 553, Patented June 3,1919.

NT @TAES AENT QFTCEO JOHN KRUSE, OF NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.

INSECT-PROOF ATTACHMENT FOR FURNITURE AND OTHER ARTICLES.

Application filed August 11, 1917.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J OI-IN Knusn, a citizen of the United States, residing at New Orleans, in the parish of Orleans and State of Louisiana, have invented a new and useful Insect-Proof Attachment for Furniture and other Articles, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has reference to insect proof attachments for furniture and other articles and its object is to provide an attachment presenting a dry insect-repellent path for the insects constituting the only path of travel for insects along the supports of furniture or the like from a floor or other surface to higher points on the furniture.

It has heretofore been proposed to guard furniture legs, trees and the like from the incursions of roving insects like ants by liquid-containing pans, sticky substances and other expedients which are either in effective or, in the case of liquid containers, liable to spill, or in the case of sticky substances, liable to contaminate those persons touching them or to be harmful to creatures which it is not desired should be harmed.

In accordance with the present invention, wooden blocks are impregnated with a poisonous substance, particularly repellent or fatal to insects of roving characteristics, such as ants, bed bugs and the like. The poisonous impregnation is of a permanent character and in use is entirely dry, while the blocks are so shaped as to constrain the insects to a tortuous path over freely ex posed poisonous surfaces, and those surfaces liable to be touched by persons or animals are wholly protected against dangerous contact.

The invention will be best understood from a consideration of the following detailed description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification, with the further understanding that, while the drawings show a practical form of the invention, the latter is not confined to any strict conformity with the showing of the drawings but may be changed and modified so long as such changes and modifications come within the scope of the appended claims.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is an elevation, partly in section, showing the lower end of a furniture leg with the invention applied;

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 3, 1919.

Serial No. 185,764.

Fig. 2 is a. vertical section of a furniture leg showing a somewhat different form of the invention;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the protecting block shown in Fig. 1, as viewed from beneath.

Referring to the drawings, there is shown in Fig. 1 a table leg 1, and in Fig. 2 a table leg 1. These table legs may be taken as indicative of any furniture leg or support.

There is also shown in Fig. 1 a cup-like block 2 formed with a peripheral flange 3 on one face providing a chamber 4:. In Fig. 1 there is also shown another block 5 of a diameter about that of the block 2, and this block 5 has a hub portion or boss 6 of a size to enter the chamber 4: in spaced relation to the inner wall of the flange 8, the boss 6 be ing long enough in the axial direction so that when the boss 6 is seated against the block 2, the block 5 is spaced from the free edge of the flange 3 by a distance too great for an ant or similar insect to cross. The boss 6 has an axial stem 7 extending through the block 2 and into the leg 1 where it may be secured in any suit-able manner, so that the boss 6 clamps the block 2 firmly against the lower end of the leg 1. The block 5 may serve as a support for a caster 8 or other device capable of moving upon a surface on which the table or piece of furniture rests.

In Fig. 2 there is a block 2 provided with an axial extension 9 on the face remote from the leg 1 and this extension is surrounded by a groove or channel 10 where it joins the block 2*. Another block 11 has an axial extension 12 on the face toward the block 2 and entering the extension 9 which is suitably recessed for the purpose. A screw 13 or other suitable fastening device is used to secure the block 11 against the block J and both blocks to the leg 1 The block 11 may rest directly upon a supporting surface or be provided with any protecting means such as are employed on furniture legs and has a diameter approximately that of the block 2, so as to cover the channel or recess 10, while the extension 9 spaces the block 11 from the block 2 sufficiently to prevent an ant or other small insect from reaching the block 2 directly from the block 11.

The blocks 2 or 2 are impregnated with a poisonous substance repellent to insects like ants, and the impregnation by this poisonous substance may be accomplished in the same A protecting coating 14; is applied to the outside of the block 2 or 2 as the case may be, this coating consisting of varnish or paint or any suitable substance covering those parts of the block which would be exposed to contact by a person or animal when the block is in position on a ture. The coating 14 is preferably carried on the under surface of the block 2 or 2*, which under surface in the block 2 is the free end of the flange 3, but not into the groove or chamber a or 10, as the case may be, the parts further toward the center of the block being protected, by the block 5 or 11, as the case may be, from accidental contact by a person or animal.

An impregnating solution which has been found to be efficient may be made up of the ingredients herein'before named in the proportions of about one pound of water, preferably rain water, one ounce of corrosive su'blimate, and one ounce of hydrochloric acid which, by preference, is the chemically pure acid. It will be understood, however, that the invention is not confined to such particular proportions.

An insect, such as an ant, in attempting to reach the furniture leg from the floor, must travel over the block 5 or 11, as the case may be, and then along the upper surface thereof, being unable to directlyreach the nearest point of the block 2 or 2*. The result is that the insect must come in contact with the inner and unprotected surface of the impregnated block 2 or 2" and is either repelled thereby or if the insect attempts to traverse the unprotected surface, the impregnating material becomes fatal to the insect before it can reach the protecting coating 14. This has been demonstrated by long experience and it has been found in actual practice that no ants or similar insects are able to reach the furniture leg or other part above theprotecting block, no matter how prevalent ants may be in the neighborhood of the piece of furniture.

While the invention is useful in repelling various small insects of the roving kind, it is particularly advantageous in protecting furniture or storage devices from the incursions of ants, none of which is able to reach any portion of the furniture above the protecting blocks.

plece of furni-,

sible to insects from the exterior and defining a tortuous passage for the insects within the structure, said wooden structure having walls of the tortuous passage over which an insect must travel to reach the furniture impregnated with material repugnant to insects and strongly adherent to and exposed on and confined in its accessibility to the insects solely to the interior walls of the tortuous passage, whereby insects endeavoring' to travel through the passage arebrought into direct contact with or into such relation to said material as to be repelled thereby.

2. Means for repelling incursions of ants or other roving insects onto furniture or other articles, comprising an inverted cuplike structure of rigid absorbent material impregnated with material repellent to the insects and having associated therewith means for defining a tortuous path for the insects within the cup-like structure, with the tortuous passage accessible solely to such insects and having the impregnating material in a dry, strongly adherent state confined, in accessibility to the insects, to inner walls of the tortuous passage.

3. Means for preventing incursions of ants and other roving insects, comprising a wooden block impregnated with material repellent to the insects, and another block associated with the first-named block and defining therewith a tortuous passage which must be traversed by the insects in order to pass the block containing the repellent material, said repellent 'material being in the dry state.

4. Means for preventing incursions of ants and other insects, comprising a rigid structure of absorbent material impregnated with poisonous material and provided with an interior tortuous passage for the insects accessible from the exterior thereof, said structure having the poisonous material in exposed, dry, and strongly adherent condition confined to interior wall portions of the tortuous passage, the outer Walls of the impregnated portion of the absorbent structure being provided with a strongly adherent coating covering the poisonous material to prevent contact therewith.

5. Means for protecting articles of furniture and the like from incursions of ants and other roving insects, comprising an upper cup-like wooden block for inclusion in a leg portion of the article, said block being impregnated with material repellent to the insects, and a lower fiat block associated with and spaced from the first block and defining with the first block a tortuous passage, for the insects, interior to the outer margins of the blocks.

6. Means for protecting articles of furniture and the like from incursions of ants and other roving insects, comprising a block for inclusion in a leg of a piece of furniture and impregnated with a material poisonous to insects, and another block associated With and spaced from the firstnamed block and nearer to the supporting portion of the leg than said first named block and defining with the first-named block a tortuous passage for the insects interior to the outer margins of the blocks, and means for securing the blocks to the leg.

7. Means for protecting articles of furniture and the like from incursions of ants and other roving insects, comprising a block for inclusion in a leg of a piece of furniture and impregnated with a material repellent to insects, and another block associated with and spaced from and nearer to the support ing portion of the leg than the first named block, the two blocks defining a tortuous passage for insects interior to the outer margins of the blocks, and the outer surface of the in'ipregnated block being provided with a protecting coating for preventing contact with the impregnating material.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own, I have hereto afiixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

JOHN KRUSE.

lVitnesses FRANCIS J. Worrnnmsim, RAYMOND F. SOHNEPP.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, .D. (3. 

